Through works by over 100 artists, Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985 examines the vital role photography played in shaping a distinctly Black artistic and cultural identity in the mid-twentieth century. Demonstrating the medium’s versatility—as art, design, organizing tool, and community builder—the exhibition brings together a remarkable range of perspectives, subjects, and voices.
From celebrations of Black beauty in Kwame Brathwaite’s fashion photography to Gordon Parks’s groundbreaking photojournalism on Nation of Islam communities for Life magazine, these works reveal how a wide array of cultural producers—from studio and street photographers to designers, activists, and community organizers—used photography to document, imagine, and transform Black life.
“Pictures told, for those who could not see themselves, of the strength and beauty of the people, of the hostility and anger of the opposition, and of the promise of a world free of racism.” – Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) member Julian Bond.